NP Changes that need to happen...

Specialties NP

Published

A change has to be made to the Nurse Practitioner profession. There are huge issues with the current curriculum, and one of the biggest issues is the lack of regulation in the curriculum. How can my current university make me take 60+ credit hours where another school is only 39 credit hours for literally the same degree? These are two top tier universities that would normally compete with each other academically. It makes no sense.

I believe there should be a paid NP residency after NP school, just as it is for MD's. This could be a shorter focused residency based in primary care depending on your specialty. I think it being 1-2 years would be sufficient and give the on the job day-to-day training of a General Practitioner. This in and of itself would increase the respect of the profession. It should increase the overall pay to NPs and move NPs towards taking over the Primary care roll.

National Regulation of curriculum (adding advanced a & p would be smart)

Freedom to practice independently in all states (no supervision)

A residency after graduation for all np's (1-2 years)

These changes would take NP's to the next level of respect, pay, and autonomy.

Specializes in ICU, ER, OR, FNP.

Well, it's not very popular, but I fully believe that the biggest problem in nursing is that it's run by nurses. Using terms that MDs understand like "residency" would give automatic credibility. Getting rid of the 43 levels of "nursing" from CNA up to NP doesn't help at all. I'm a FNP and see the exact same PTs as my MD counterpart, but I know he has no idea what all of those levels of nurses are - and frankly doesn't care. A nurse is a nurse is a nurse wasn't invented by me or my MD counterparts. I personally wish my title had anything but "nurse" in tht title. Good luck.

Specializes in CCRN, CEN.

My suggestion would be a greater emphasis placed on actual clinical experience gained and demonstrated. I've worked with too many low skilled nurses who enrolled into FNP programs. I'm just at my 5th year of experience and feel I'm ready for further study. How anyone can honestly think they're ready to be advanced practice nurses after working a year is beyond me.

My first suggestion would be to get rid of programs that don't provide clinical training to their students (and get rid of the degree mills). Seriously, where is the quality control? I would never see a doctor whose program didn't care who trained them. Ugh.

My program just for my fnp is 1200 clinical hours. Which is a decent amount. My 4 years of practicing as a nurse in the hospital is about 9000 hours. If I got paid 45k a year for two years after my fnp to learn, and garner the respect the profession should have. I would do it in a heartbeat. We need to change the standards. We will lose Nps in number but gain pay respect and quality by far. We would be much more qualified to completely take over primary care and change how healthcare is handled.

This is one of the reasons that steered me towards PA school (I am currently a PA student). The education model seemed to have more consistency between programs and more clinical hours. I was also attracted to the available and established, albeit somewhat limited, residency programs for PAs, which are generally between 9-18 months in length. I know these are slowly becoming more available for NPs too.

I was accepted to both PA schools and a few direct entry NP programs (at some well respected institutions). VERY hard decision at the fork in the road. I chose PA for many more reasons stated here, but wanted to share since it is related to the original thread subject.

As far as taking over primary care, leave room at the table for PAs in the verbiage. We will be just as qualified as NPs to delivery primary care. NPs of course have the leg up in terms of independence, but there is always room for change.

Honestly, if I wasn't so interested in psych (I think PA training for this specialty is not satisfactory) and having my own practice, I would have probably gone with PA training.

Actually brings up another reason I chose PA. which is I didn't know what specialty I wanted to go into. And since NPs have to choose a specialty from the get go (FNP being the most versatile), I wasn't ready to commit. If I did however, like yourself, know I wanted to go into Psych, PsychNP would hands down have been the answer.

I am leading towards interest in Emergency Medicine which I felt the PA profession has a better leg up in terms of education and post-graduate residencies, and possibly actual preference in job hiring, but I think this is more regional, and I don't have hard facts to back that up, just hunch.

If I was positive however, that family practice was what I wanted to do, it would have been FNP no doubt. This was a tough decision for me. I respect both professions. And I am more convinced than ever that we should work together to strengthen our role in healthcare and medicine.

Specializes in ED/Trauma/Flight Nursing.
My first suggestion would be to get rid of programs that don't provide clinical training to their students (and get rid of the degree mills). Seriously, where is the quality control? I would never see a doctor whose program didn't care who trained them. Ugh.

I 100% agree with Myelin!

All of these online schools like Georgetown, Frontier, University of Phoenix, etc that call and haunt you to go there are completely in it for money. And they all make you find your own preceptors and could care less where you do your clinicals. It makes a mockery out of the actual good programs out there!

I'm thinking about becoming an NP, but I am slightly embarrassed to discuss it with people in the know--I don't know if I want to be in a field where anyone can get the degree on the INTERNET! I just don't understand how you can learn to treat people medically at home on your computer screen. :no:

I would have to agree that I would like to see a "residency" type program for new NP grads. I will complete my FNP degree in 2014 and I would love to enhance my experience as a APRN before taking a more "permanent" position. Upon graduation I will have 9 years critical care experience and right now still have apprehensions about practicing, maybe this will decreases in time upon graduating, but knowing I could go into a advanced clinical experience program and get paid while completing would decrease these feelings.

Also, for proper accreditation for certification a program must have a certain number of clinical hours. Earning advance degrees online are here to stay and don't only exist in nursing, but I feel there needs to be consistency in the educational courses and clinical experience. Going straight into an advance degree with no experience is a discredit to the profession and the nurse, we all learn through our experience and with no experience before advancing puts the nurse at a great disadvantage. Most programs I think require 1-2 years which isn't much in nursing.

Earning advance degrees online are here to stay and don't only exist in nursing, but I feel there needs to be consistency in the educational courses and clinical experience.

It's not the coursework being online that bothers me, it's programs literally not caring who trains their students. Seriously, how can that possibly be acceptable? When it comes to level of clinical experience, I think that's a serious gray area (research doesn't support that RN experience contributes to NP practice, oddly enough). There are some NPs with minimal RN experience who are fabulous, and those with decades of experience who struggle.

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